This is the story about Gabriella Cosner, a healthy energetic little girl who was diagnosed with an aggressive and rare type of childhood cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma, how the CrossFit community came together to offer support and assistance to them through this trying time and how Tianna (also diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma) and Tianna's family came to join the Team G Mission. Team G was create
d when family, friends and the community came together after learning of a little girl's fight with cancer. Last March of 2012, the parents of Gabriella Cosner heard the words that no parent ever wants to hear in their life…”You’re daughter has cancer”. How could this be? Why our little girl? While traveling the difficult and heart breaking world of pediatric cancer, Kristin and Adam’s team were forming an army of support behind them. had a huge team of support behind them. We named this support “Team G” They had been active members of the CrossFit community here in Santa Cruz, Ca for over 4 years. Adam had received his Level 1 certification the months before Gabriella was born and Kristin started up when G was only 1 month old. G grew to love being a part of this community as much as her parents and often sat in a baby chair while mom and dad worked out. The first few months of Gabriella’s treatment kept Kristin and Adam very busy with learning that G would undergo 42 weeks of total therapy including, surgeries, biopsies, chemotherapy and radiation. They were beyond maxed out, emotionally and physically, when the CrossFit community came together to set up meals. These weren’t just meals but Paleo meals because they didn’t want the Cosner’s feeling like crap on top of everything else they were dealing with. As the Cosner’s were being dragged through the trenches of childhood cancer and adjusting to their new routine of Gabriella’s treatment, a fundraiser and blood drive were being planned by CrossFit friends to raise money for G’s medical expenses. The plan was to have an obstacle course and blood drive in G’s honor. The fundraiser was a complete success. While in treatment Tianna, a local Santa Cruz Co teen, read about Gabriella in the newspaper via the obstacle course and said to her parents, “We have to help these people!” Because of her helpful and giving nature, the families are now linked by the shared desire to find a cure and to help others facing childhood cancer. Claudia, Tianna's courageous and brave mom, knows we all live in the web and are connected: by blood, by experience, and by love. She is married to her best friend, Diego, and the mother of two beautiful girls; her oldest, Tianna, was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma at the tender age of 14. Tianna learned to stream her healing energy from her mother who is the first at your doorstep with a car full of irresistible home-cooked food if you are sick, and who shows up at your doorstep ready to help when you are in need. When she is not working at Dominican Hospital, prized for her bilingual and bicultural abilities, she and Diego are parenting their spunky younger daughter, Leilani, running marathons, working out at the gym, or gathering with their friends and enormous extended family for a meal or a holiday. Claudia and her energetic and committed family have been fierce supporters for raising funds and awareness for not only pediatric cancer but also school athletics and nutrition, disciplines Tianna cared about deeply. Claudia herself has been given a second chance because of cancer trials and new treatments available for brain tumors. She is disease and symptom-free and doing well because people she will never know made contributions to fund research that benefitted her and so many other patients. Her experience with cancer, both her own and her daughter’s, have made her a passionate medical advocate for herself and her children, and now, in Tianna’s memory, for kids and their families facing this diagnosis. Claudia has developed a ‘crazy DNA of determination’ to keep on moving forward to advocate for herself and others, a drive that gathers strength every day. These families saw the outpour of support and love through this journey and vowed to keep it going for other children who were fighting cancer. Thus “Team G Foundation” was created in hopes that money will be raised all over the nation to help support families battling pediatric cancer and fund research for less toxic treatments.
